Dog Buries Puppy: Tender Video of Canine 'Funeral' Goes Viral (Video)

Viewers watching as a dog buries a puppy have sparked emotional sharing and sent the video viral. In the footage, a dog finds the dead body of a puppy and carefully buries it by pushing dirt with its nose, garnering tears, sympathy, and shares from watchers.

The video, originally posted on YouTube with Arabic letters in the title and identified as occurring in Iraq, shows a black-and-white dog nosing dirt onto the dead body of a small, white puppy, effectively burying the puppy, before turning away.

While some people online called it an astounding act of mourning, others on Twitter and YouTube attributed the behavior to natural instincts.

“I wonder if this is an evolutionary-tweaked behavior. My guess is, animals with an instinct to bury their own dead would help their pack not be found by other hungry animals who might detect the smell of rotting flesh. Also, it might prevent animals within the pack to not be exposed to whatever disease might have killed the dead one,” WilliamScull posted on YouTube under the video.